1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for reconditioning and charging a battery. More particularly, the present invention relates to a lead-acid battery rejuvenator and a method for operating the same.
2. Description of Related Art
During a battery discharge process, ions within the battery electrolyte will be attracted towards the electrode plates, for example, lead ions are attracted towards the cathode electrode made of lead or lead oxide material, to form a lead acid compound. Over repeated use, usually these aforementioned lead acid compounds gradually build up and are deposited as stacked layers over the electrode plate. When these stacked layers reach a certain level, the chemistry of the battery solution is altered, this may in turn prevent the exchange of ions, thereby increasing the resistance of the battery. Therefore, the accumulation of lead acid compound due to repeated use results in a gradual increase in the internal resistance of the battery and loss of efficiency. Although electric power within the lead-acid battery can be somewhat restored after passing a direct current through the battery during a recharging step, the direct current is too weak to eliminate the lead-acid compound. In fact, the adhesion force between the lead-acid compound and the electrode plate is further increased over repeated battery recharging/discharging cycles. Hence, each battery discharge not only deposits more lead-acid compound on the lead plate, but also converts a portion of the lead-acid compound into harder-to-remove lead-acid crystals.
To tackle the aforementioned lead-acid accumulation problem, Gali et al in U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,959, U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,341, U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,664 and Gregory et al in U.S. Pat. No. 5,491,399 has proposed a lead-acid battery rejuvenator. According to their inventions, each lead-acid battery rejuvenator employs a transformer with a capability to generate periodic oscillatory pulses connected to the battery electrodes for recharging the battery. According to them, this would facilitate gradual peeling-off of the lead-acid compound stacked layers on the electrode. The peeled off lead-acid compound is re-dissolved into the battery solution or deposited at the bottom section of the battery.
However, since the aforementioned battery rejuvenators have a circuit structure that depends on a transformer to produce the necessary periodic oscillatory pulses therefore, the highest frequency of the oscillatory pulses produced is limited by the frequency of the transformer, which is at the most 8 KHz. Since the applied frequency of the pulses are relatively low therefore the rate of removal is quite slow and less efficient in overcoming the aforementioned problems.
Accordingly, in order to improve the removal rate of lead-acid compound stacked layers from the electrodes, it is highly desirable to use periodic pulses of much higher frequencies. Hence, an ideal battery rejuvenator should be easy to operate and capable of effectively and efficiently removing the lead-acid compound that are formed on the electrodes which is both time and cost effective.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a battery rejuvenator having an oscillator, a frequency divider and two transistors for rapid dissociation of lead-acid compound on the electrode of a lead-acid battery.
The present invention provides a method of dissociating the lead-acid crystals adhered to the electrode of a lead-acid battery.
The present invention provides a process for decreasing the adhesion force between the lead-acid crystals and the electrode of the battery.
The present invention provides a battery rejuvenator apparatus and a method for generating a pulse frequency which is much higher than that generated by the conventional techniques so that the lead-acid compound on an electrode can be effectively dissociated.
The present invention provides a method of reconditioning and recharging a lead-acid battery by using a rapid periodic pulse signals generated form an A/C power source.
More specifically the present invention provides a battery rejuvenator comprising an oscillator for generating oscillating output frequency signals. A frequency divider capable of generating a plurality of non-overlapping pulse frequency output signals upon receiving the frequency signal from the oscillator, and transmit it through the respective operating frequency out-put terminals. A first transistor, wherein the load terminal of the first transistor is electrically connected to one terminal of an inductor while the other terminal of the inductor is electrically connected to the positive terminal of a lead-acid battery, the ground terminal of the first transistor is electrically connected to the negative terminal of the lead-acid battery, and the control terminal of the first transistor is electrically connected to one of the operating frequency output terminals of the frequency divider. And a second transistor, wherein the load terminal of the second transistor is electrically connected to one terminal of a resistor while the other terminal of the resistor is electrically connected to the positive terminal of the lead-acid battery, the ground terminal of the second transistor is electrically connected to the negative terminal of the lead-acid battery, and the control terminal of the second transistor is electrically connected to one of the operating frequency output terminals of the frequency divider.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.